Some prominent members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have challenged the former Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, asserting that he cannot dismantle the party.
Wike, while speaking at the PDP secretariat in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday threatened the party.
PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary Ibrahim Abdullahi stated that Wike’s comments posed no threat to the PDP, which he said had withstood over 25 years of more severe challenges.
“Those were his entitled personal opinions at most. They don’t constitute threats to the PDP, which has survived even worse machinations 25 years down the road. No single individual has the capacity to terminate the life of this party, PDP,” Abdullahi told reporters.
On his part, the Director of Media and Publicity, Osun PDP, Oladele Olabamiji, said Wike’s statement was reckless and irresponsible.
He said, “Wike’s statement is rather a reckless and irresponsible one, to say the least. Governor Fubara is not an outcast. He is a PDP governor. On that premise, it is out of place for Wike to threaten PDP governors for supporting one of their own.
“At the PDP Governors Forum, they can offer help to one of them that needs it. Attacking them for doing that is out of place. We urge PDP governors to protect one of their own. Wike is not the President of Nigeria. He has a job in Abuja. He should face it and stop handing down threats.
“He can do it sometimes and get away with it. But in our case here, he can’t get away with such a reckless statement.”
Also, the Rivers State Commissioner for Environment, Sydney Gbara, called on security agencies to invite Wike for questioning following his comments.
Gbara, a former Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Rivers State, said such statements were not expected from an elder statesman like the former governor, pointing out that threatening 13 governors was tantamount to causing a crisis in the country.
“Well, I feel that as an elder statesman, nobody will expect that he will make such utterances.
“So, threatening that you are going to cause crisis in 13 states out of the 36 states in Nigeria means planning to cause crisis in the entire country. That is what it means, security-wise,” Gbara said.